The Millennial Misunderstanding

Much has been said about what Millennials want most from work, but our research suggests that some of these ideas are not entirely accurate. It’s not that softer benefits like finding personal meaning in work don’t matter to Millennials, but that these things matter as much or more to older workers. In fact, it may be that non-Millennials are the group that’s more misunderstood.

Millennials and older workers place the same value on most workplace benefits and incentives. For both groups, competitive compensation is the most important factor in determining job satisfaction.

But our surveys do reveal one substantial difference between Millennials and older workers—the younger people expect more feedback. In fact, they expect feedback 50% more often than other employees. They are also more likely to say they get their professional development from formal training at work, and less likely to say they use self-directed learning.